FEATURED NEWS
Tower Semiconductor nears NIS 10b market cap
Tower, which now specializes in analog chips, has seen its share price double over the past year. The share price of Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (Nasdaq: TSEM; TASE: TSEM) (which trades as Tower-Jazz), one of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) stars for the past year, soared by over 10% in the past week, and has now almost doubled in the past year, reaching its highest level in a decade and boosting the Migdal HaEmek-based company’s market cap to NIS 9.5 billion ($2.6 billion). Tower Semiconductor, which specializes in analog chips, is scheduled to publish its results for the second quarter of 2017 on August 3. The company, led by CEO Russell Ellwanger, posted $330 million in revenue in the first quarter 18.7% more than in the corresponding quarter in 2016.
CWS SIPEX RELEASED IN TOWERJAZZ’S CS18 (RF SOI) PROCESS DESIGN KITS
The new design tool will improve the linearity of RF designs and accurately simulate and model critical RF functions for 5G and IoT communications
Coupling Wave Solutions, S.A. (CWS), a leader in solutions for interference analysis in complex chip designs incorporating RF and analog blocks, today announced TowerJazz (NASDAQ: TSEM), the global specialty foundry leader, has adopted CWS’ SiPEX in its CS18 RF SOI process design kits (PDKs) to provide improved substrate modeling. SiPEX models the silicon substrate on insulators generating a compact circuit based representation that is compatible with the rest of the PDK. RF designers will now be able to accurately model parasitic physical effects that impact the integration of critical analog and RF functions in complex electronic systems for next generation cellular and Wi-Fi communication chips. TowerJazz’s CS18 PDKs is offered with SiPEX™ already integrated.
RF Device and Process Biz Heats Up
The RF device and process technology markets are heating up, especially for two critical components used in smartphones—RF switch devices and antenna tuners. RF device makers and their foundry partners continue to ramp up traditional RF switch chips and tuners based on RF SOI process technologies for today’s 4G wireless networks.
But will RF MEMS devices displace those based on RF SOI? One company, TowerJazz, can perhaps provide some insights. TowerJazz provides traditional RF SOI processes, and is also the foundry provider for Cavendish’s RF MEMS devices. “There may be some small overlap where RF MEMS and RF SOI will compete for the same application. In general, they will complement each other (with) RF MEMS winning in the most demanding applications and RF SOI the rest,” said Marco Racanelli, SVP & GM of RF/HPA BU, TowerJazz.
“RF SOI continues to evolve and thus remains viable and preferred for RF switching applications and some portion of the low-noise amplifier market,” Racanelli said. “However, there are some applications where alternative technologies, such as SiGe for low-noise amplifiers and MEMS for switches, can offer improved linearity or lower losses. And while RF SOI will continue to serve an expanding market, other technologies will have their place as well.”
Tower teams with Aisin Seiki on car chips
TowerJazz’s power management platform will enable the Japanese company to produce industry leading performance for car chips.
Global foundry Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (Nasdaq: TSEM; TASE: TSEM) is teaming with Japanese automotive supplier Aisin Seiki, Co., Ltd, part of the Toyota Group, on car components. Tower markets under the name TowerJazz. The two companies have announced volume production of Aisin’s new generation automotive devices using TowerJazz’s power management technology platform.
TowerJazz’s power management platform enables industry leading performance for car chips by providing: scalable LDMOS and ESD devices for area efficiency, its patented Y-Flash OTP/MTP solutions, as well as buried Zener diode, Schottky diode and other advanced features.